Eyeball Wishes

As we were preparing for the daily mud bath I was slathering Bitty with sunscreen, and I got a little sad because I suddenly remembered that the last time I was doing this she was requesting "scumskeen" and now she wants just regular old sun screen. This does not mean, however, that she has abandoned all cute baby talk and funny ideas, because also today she hopped out from behind something and shouted "yoda lady whoooo!" I thought that was rather endearing. Also, we had Troy's parents over for dinner. As Bitty she sat on her grandmother's knee and looked into her eyes she said, "Hey, you've got wishes in your eyes!" I was able to explain, first of all that she didn't think Grandma had a witch in her eye, just a wish. The last time she said this it took some figuring out, but it turns out that when she sees the little spark of reflected light in someone's eye, she thinks it looks like the flame on the top of a birthday candle, thus making it a "wish." I'll tell you, the first time she said that a few weeks ago it took some serious figuring to understand what she meant. I just love that - we all have twinkling wishes in our eyes.

Spring has Sprung

I loved today. Loved it. I don't think the weather could have been any better. Plus, it was Sunday, yet Troy didn't have any meetings after church, so we just had a nice afternoon together. Of course church did involve a three-stooges-esque wrestling match for pretty much the duration of sacrament meeting, but we all survived. The weather has blossomed into loveliness, just warm enough to hang out outside in shorts, go for a walk with El Poocho, and most importantly, get a good head start on our annual mud bog in the backyard. I was so happy to enjoy a day like this after yesterday.

Yesterday was not a bad day by any means, it was just one of those crazy busy days. It started with a double (two family) play date in the morning, and moved on through dropping kids off at my sister's, shopping for a shower gift, going to a wedding shower, finding out that I was in charge of refreshments for a baptism 1 1/2 hours before it began, picking kids up, getting ready for the baptism, getting to the baptism to find that there were about three times as many people as we were expecting and so shopping during the baptism, frantically preparing the food during the end of the service (thank you helper friends!) and then having friends over for an impromptu dinner after that. Yeah, I'm tired just reading over that. Although I suppose I could be tired because of this really fun game our family played last night called musical beds. I'm sure you parents out there are familiar with it and I won't bore you with the details.

By the way, though I missed the actual baptism, the guy who got baptized is really cool and I'm happy for him. And the food I made was really great.

I must mention one of the many reasons I love my husband. It's so fun to watch him adore his children. He dug a pretty big pit in our dirt patch for Stomper to play in, and filled it up with water. As Troy watched his son have an absolute ball splashing and jumping and digging in there, he mentioned to me how much he wants to make, out of plaster or wood or something, some big dinosaur-ish bones to hide in there. Can you imagine my little dinosaur boy digging in there, pretending as usual to be a paleontologist, and actually finding bones? I think he would have a heart attack of joy. I just love that Troy thinks about what would make his kids ecstatically happy and finds joy in their joy. That's a good daddy for you.

Observations

Random observation #1:
In my gmail account I have a special place where all the spam lands. It tells me that the spam folder will empty itself after 30 days, and normally I can't stand to wait this long before I empty it myself. I am now conducting an experiment to find out how much spam will accumulate before it finally does empty itself. So far we're up to 3070. Thank heavens it's in a separate folder, and I'm wondering what I did to get on The List.

Random observation #2:
When my daughter cries, she can actually produce tears with enough velocity that they launch themselves from her face. She looks like a cartoon of a kid crying, water flying everywhere. It's pretty amazing to see these little droplets actually springing off her cheeks. She's a very talented young lady.

The Weekly Update

I must begin by thanking my many supporters for all the comments from my "feeling like an idiot" post. I don't think I've ever gotten so many comments from a post before. Just so you know, I did respond to the author's comment by saying that I certainly hoped that her book sales were helping her pay off her whopping debt. Unfortunately, I got my copy from the library, so I wasn't very helpful in that regard. I have no idea if she read my reply or not. Anyway, you all made me feel much better!

Where to begin? So many great moments this week. Bitty has been informing me that she is now too big for diapers. This is a devastating comment to hear, I being one who despises potty training. The thing is, she hates diapers, she loves panties, she hates sitting on the potty, and she is heartbroken when her undies get wet. I find this to be quite the combination. On Thursday we tried using a timer, set for every 20 minutes or so. That worked really well. She would happily go sit on the potty every time it went off. However, she never actually went potty while sitting on the potty. (I assume you know that by "go potty" I mean "urinate" - I'm not quite a grown-up yet, GHD3!) She must have sat on that thing at least 15 times. Not once did anything happen. She did, however, manage to wet her pants twice. She also pooped, but had the grace to remove her beloved Dora panties before doing so. Behind the couch. Serenity Now!!! She just has no concept of recognizing the need to go potty. Oh well, we'll get there.

Troy made me a very happy lady this week. He built a beautiful coat rack to hang by our front door. I've been wanting one for a long time, and looked and looked and never found anything that I really liked. I hated to put another job on Troy's to-do list, but he reminded me that there is a reason that we paid for all the tools he owns, and he did a great job. I love it. I love it so much I kind of hate to hang anything on it because it covers it up. Troy told me that he enjoys telling people how easy it is to make me happy. All he has to do is deny me some basic thing for a really really long time and then when he suddenly presents it to me I'm the happiest person on the planet. I just love that he has the talent to make beautiful things like that.

I also had to record our funny dog moments this week. Alex just gets nervous sometimes when kids are running around. I would even say he gets a little clingy. Here are pictures of him insisting on close physical contact with his favorite person on the planet:




He's such a psycho puppy, but I love him anyway.






I will end with a story about a trip to the park. First of all, hooray that we finally made it to the park! It was a bit chilly, but nice to soak in a little vitamin D. I was watching my kids and how opposite they are from each other, as demonstrated by their swing usage. Stomper, 5 1/2 year old boy, still insists on swinging in the little baby swings with a back and a chain sort of buckling him in. He loves for me to do all the pushing and pretty much blocks out all instruction on how to pump himself. Then there's Bitty, half her brother's age, who refused to sit in the little swings and refused to let me touch her at all. She just sat there on the big swing, hanging on for dear life and wiggling her bum as hard as she could trying to move. I'm laughing to myself just thinking about it. I want to solve her frustration so bad, but she just has to do it herself, which is great. Great, that is, until she's absolutely screaming in fury yet still won't let me help. She's a tough cookie, I tell you!

Very last of all, a great picture of her during a recent playdate:

Tags

Okay, I'm actually kind of getting into these tags - they're a kind of fun way to find things out about friends. If you don't find them fun or interesting, then please, stop reading. I got an ABC tag from my friend Gina. Here goes.

A-Attached or Single:
I'm singularly attached. I love my Troy.
B-Best Friend:
See above answer. I'm also endlessly grateful for my piles and piles of friends.
C-Cake or Pie:
How am I supposed to answer that one? I'd eat both with a fork in each hand if I could. And I love making both, though I've had more success in the cake department.
D-Day of Choice:
Don't really have a favorite. I love Tuesday and Wednesday because that's when my favorite step class is, I love Saturdays because "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" is on NPR...
E-Essential Items:
Hand lotion, chap stick, a scrunchie. I also greatly appreciate having baby wipes on hand, though I try to not go through them wastefully.
F-Favorite Color:
So many good ones! Apple green, lately.
G-Gummy Bears or Worms:
Bears, I guess, but I'd prefer the little cola bottles.
H-Hometown:
Born in Boulder Colorado, but at this point SLC is really home.
I-Indulgences:
Good food, I love a nice pedicure but don't do it much.
J-January or July:
Gosh. I'd rather have the two inbetweens of April and October.
K- Kids:
Three babes, one of whom is waiting for us to catch up to him.
L- Life would be incomplete without:
My family and friends
M- Marriage Date:
December 30, 1997 (yup, that makes us working on year #11!)
N-Number of Siblings:
1 big sis and 2 little bros.
O-Oranges or Apples:
Apples I guess. I love oranges but I'm so picky - they have to be just right or I can't eat them.
P-Phobia or Fears:
Hmmm. I guess really deep water kind of freaks me out. Heights, although I'm thrilled by them too. I don't like forgetting things, isn't that weird? Alzheimer's totally freaks me out.
Q-Quotes:
You must sacrifice perfection in order to teach responsibility
R-Reason to smile:
Life in general, I think. The coming of Spring. Watching my kids playing nicely. Hearing a song I really love. Shall I go on?
S-Season:
When spring finally gets here I'm just filled with happiness. I love watching my plants come up, I love going outside and breathing in all the smells, going for walks. Mmmm. Love it.
T-Tag Six:
How about Michelle, Melissa, Monica, Carrie, Kathleen P. and Adair. No pressure, of course.
U-Unknown Fact About Me:
I have hair on my big toes.
V-Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal:
Isn't there a separate category? Like "Less Meat Eating?" Because that's where I am.
Y- Your Favorite Food:
I'd have to say that Indian food is pretty much manna from heaven for me, though I love most Asian like Korean, Thai, stuff like that.
Z-Zodiac Sign:
Gemini. Apparently this means that I'm a back-stabbing two-timer.

Feeling Like an Idiot

I just read this book. It's called "Someday My Prince Will Come," by Jerramy Fine. It was kinda fun, I have to admit that it kept me reading. However, it also kinda drove me crazy. This is not a novel, it's the memoir of a woman just a few years younger than myself who was raised by a set of very bohemian parents in Colorado, but she was totally obsessed with England, royalty, and marrying a prince. It definitely had its charming moments, ...well, here's the review I wrote about it on my goodreads page:

It's hard to know what to say about this book. The author definitely has a fun writing style that keeps you turning pages, and in some ways I sympathized with her plight because it was so real to her. And in other ways I wanted to slap her silly and ask her what her problem was. She came off as being pretty obsessive, slutty, alcoholic, psycho and a credit card maniac. Two hundred thousand dollars in debt? Get a hold of yourself! Also, her parents were the target of much sarcastic humor tha...more "It's hard to know what to say about this book. The author definitely has a fun writing style that keeps you turning pages, and in some ways I sympathized with her plight because it was so real to her. And in other ways I wanted to slap her silly and ask her what her problem was. She came off as being pretty obsessive, slutty, alcoholic, psycho and a credit card maniac. Two hundred thousand dollars in debt? Get a hold of yourself! Also, her parents were the target of much sarcastic humor that began to feel cruel to me. She gave them a little credit in the end, thankfully. Her big statement at the conclusion of the book about everything she had learned was full of things that I felt were obvious from the beginning, that any rational creature might already have been aware of and that I was internally screaming at her throughout the book. Now that I've trashed the book I must say that I did get caught up in her story and that I have some interest England myself, so it had its good points. I loved her footnotes."

I reread my comments several times before I posted them to make sure they were really how I felt, and they really are how I feel. However, this morning I received an email letting me know that I had a message from Jerramy Fine waiting for me in my goodreads account. Gulp. I guess when I so flippantly shredded her I wasn't expecting her to read my comments and then write back. Here's what she had to say:

Hi Rachel,
Just letting you know that my debt was 95% higher-education-related! Overseas masters degrees cost a lot - especially when combined with four years of a private US university that my parents couldn't afford to fund on my behalf. Luckily, the American government gave me loans for the full amount of both schools - but sadly 200K is how much debt I racked up for the sake of a good education. I have many friends with MBA and law degrees that are in similar (or worse) financial positions.
Royally yours,
Jerramy

Yeah, I'm feeling like a jerk. I have to admit that I known the actual author would be reading I probably would have used words like "boy crazy" instead of "slutty," "sure drinks a lot" rather than "alcoholic"....and would have left out the "psycho" all together. I get a little passionate with my opinions sometimes and throw words out that are probably stronger than I mean them to be,. Sometimes I think I'm being funny. I'm sure it's kind of hard to have your very first book be a memoir of yourself and just lay yourself out there like that, and then get trashed. At the same time, I still stand by my feelings. She did choose a very expensive graduate school in London just because it was in London. I am certainly a little star struck. Why am I suddenly wanting to make a good impression on her? So I need a verdict - do I write a note back to her saying sorry I'm a jerk? Am I a jerk? Do I really want you to answer that?


Other random notes from the week:

Bitty has returned! Yesterday was the first day in over a week that Bitty was more herself. It was a wonderful day. She was happy, playful, silly and chatty. What a relief. She had been so miserable for so many days that we were all a little miserable. Of course, I think she's still got an ear infection, but if you think I'm going back for more antibiotics, well, I'm not. She said something kind of cute yesterday - she saw a square of light on the floor of the otherwise dim kitchen and said, "Look, a good-morning shadow!" She calls all things light "good morning" and all things dark "good night." When she wants the lights on she asks for good morning time. If she wants to get out of bed she insists that it is good morning time. Kinda cute, I think.

Stomper has been a real trooper this week as I've been so preoccupied with his sister. My favorites of his activities of the week have been him hiding all his remaining Easter candy behind the closet door in his bedroom, "to store it for the winter," as he told me. Of course, every time he came out of his room he seemed to be chewing and drooling strands of brown, so I don't think it will make it all the way to next winter. Luckily there wasn't much back there or I might have had to do something alarming like set limits or use parenting skills. I think three mini snickers won't do much harm. Also, he's been so sweet at bedtime. When I worked up at Brighton LDS Girl's Camp there was (and certainly still is) a song that the staff sings together every night to say goodnight. It's called Shadows Creep - when you're ready to sing it you say, "Let's creep!" Well, Stomper loves that song and this whole week has asked me to sing it. He says that he can't go to sleep unless I sing it, and has even said, "Mom, if you're ready for me to go to sleep then you should sing Shadows Creep." When I start singing it he instantly shuts his eyes and composes his face into the most peaceful state he can. It warms my heart. I'm a little tempted to start singing it at 7:15 tonight.

And one final note: any of you ever buy your kids Polly Pockets? Who...WHO decided that those little tiny dollies needed their own shoes? Shoes that are less than a centimeter in length? And what possessed me to be one of those purchasers? I had to ask this question as I found myself on my hands and needs, my cheek pressed to my living room floor frantically searching for the minuscule object as my daughter trailed behind me, weeping. Could the shoe in question at least been one of the pink ones? No, it was, of course, Cinderella's glass slipper, so it was a clear object less than one centimeter long and only a couple of millimeters wide I was searching for. Just so you know, I did find it, and now all the polly pockets are locked safely in their little box and are on the top shelf. Now that's logic for you.

Viewer Discretion Advised

You know you've got something good going on when your Pediatrician walks into your exam room, stops, stares at your child and says, "Oh. My. Gosh." But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Easter weekend! Yippeeee, right? Well, some of the time yes and some of the time, not so much. Let's go with the good parts first.

Dying eggs on Saturday afternoon was fun. And of course quite messy. Bitty found that she loves the taste of vinegar and spent most of the egg-dying frenzy dunking her fingers into the various dyes and then sucking on them. She eventually moved on to sucking the eggs themselves. I did try to stop her, seeing as who KNOWS what is in those little pellets of color, but I was kind of laughing too hard. I always picture a project like this and imagine it being a really terrific activity, taking a nice long time, bringing out the creativity in my children, making close family memories... What really happens is the kids are so anxious to dye the eggs they're practically throwing them into the cups of dye with such force that the eggs are cracking (eggs that I forgot about while boiling, and thus cooked them for over half an hour...yum!) and then yanking them out so fast that they're barely pastel. At least that way they can re-dye them five minutes later when they're all done and want more eggs.

Another super enjoyable Saturday afternoon activity for us was doing a little bike riding at the playground around the corner from our house. I have such great memories as a kid of my parents teaching me how to ride my little yellow bike, and later taking off with my siblings through the country roads of our little neighborhood. Our house is on a pretty busy street surrounded by two other busy streets, so I don't see myself ever letting the kids just take off on their bikes. I don't know, maybe when they're older. Anyway, we've never put a lot of emphasis on bike riding, we've never gotten the kids tricycles, and suddenly Stomper is getting big! We've obtained two nice little bikes from friendly neighbors and Troy got them all cleaned up and fitted with training wheels and sized just right for the kids. I have to say, my heart filled with joy watching the two of them pedal around. I'm looking forward to many biking outings this spring and summer. Oh yeah, and we need to get some helmets, I know.





It was after that the fun really began. Bitty has been struggling with ear infections. Last month we tried the regular old pink amoxicillan. The infection was back after a couple of weeks. So last week we started on the next step up, Augmentin. Let it be known, my child is not compatible with this drug. Saturday afternoon I noticed a couple of red spots on her legs and thought, hmmmmm. I called my trusty advisor in all things, Becky, and we decided that it would be fine to wait until the morning to see what was up. What was up was a major reaction to the medication. I noticed spots all over her neck when she woke up, called the doc, who of course recommended that we stop the antibiotic. Sure, no big deal, here's some benadryl. Well, then I went to change her out of her jammies, took one look at her spotted, inflamed little body and just about fainted. Luckily her breathing was fine, but yikes. That was scary. So, we continued on with the benadryl. Well, Sunday night the itchies started. Wow. No sleep for Bitty or Bitty's mommy. I felt so bad for her. (And for me.) Of course she was crying about her ears again, she totally had a blazing fever, and she was just miserable.

Our little pediatric clinic opens at 8:00 and I was on the phone at 8:01. Yes, hello, I need an appointment RIGHT NOW. Dr. George was the one who walked in and stopped in his tracks when he saw her. Here's where your viewer discretion is advised. I had to take a couple of pictures to always remember poor Bitty and her journey into the realm of the truly miserable. Just so you know, she was fine - I was a little afraid that we had a trip to Primary Children's in our future, but alarmist that I am, of course I thought that. She's fine, and is, right now, sleeping soundly and has much less of a resemblance to a leopard.

Here she is in the car as we were picking up the new medication from the local pharmacy.


Here we are after the apointment getting in a dry diaper. Poor baby!

It has taken the past two days for her to really start feeling better, but thankfully she slept last night, and is sleeping now, so hopefully we're recovering. Oh yeah, I forgot about Easter. It kind of got overshadowed by the whole "I think my kid is gonna die!!!!" thing but it was nice. The kids each got a nice little gift, plus we had dinner with both sets of grandparents and a little egg hunt. Nice, yeah, but I'm kind of glad that weekend is slipping into the past.

Snowmen at Night

Are you familiar with this fantastic children's book? It's a favorite at our house. And it sort of came to life for us. Here's the snowman Troy and the kids put together on our snowy Saturday night:



And here it is the next afternoon:



What did that snowman do at night? It must have been doing the limbo. It certainly looks a little worse for the wear, anyway. We put green water in the spray bottle so Stomper could color the snowman green (and work on his fine-motor skills at the same time, unbeknownst to him...) but I'm not sure what he was up to by impaling the snowman on a watering can. I'm so glad the kids are starting to play more outside, despite the chilly temperatures. This household is in need of some fresh air!

Things I Want to Remember

I'm sitting here, this Saturday evening, watching my family have a snowball fight on the back porch. In the usual style of SLC, we've had a taste of spring, some warmth in the air to make us hungry for outings to the park and flopping on the grass, and now it's snowing. Pretty hard, actually, and my kids are loving it. Once again I've gotten behind in all the things I've wanted to post, and as I watched the kids and Troy spontaneously start a snowball fight with gleeful shouts I saw that one of those magical moments happening right before my eyes. It made me think that I could just sum up this week in a list of everything I wanted to remember.

Thing One: Week of Cakes.

I really love making cakes. Big tall beautiful towers covered in luscious frosting. Of course, my towers never fail to lean to one side. I'm still working towards perfection. And I had many chances to practice this week. On Monday we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday with a massive yellow cake with traditional chocolate frosting. It was the most crooked of the whole week, I think, but it sure was tasty. (A quick note: Troy and the kids have now rolled together a snowball that is taller than Bitty. Bitty is wearing slippers. I'm expecting tears at any moment due to cold feet, but so far she's just screaming with delight.) Then on Tuesday was our big Relief Society Birthday Party - and of course I'm on the food committee. It was actually my idea to have a beautiful table just filled with cakes and thus it became my job to make the cakes. I only made three of the five, and they all turned out nicely. A three-tiered lemon just dripping with creamy glaze, a gooey coconut that soaked up the sour cream frosting for three days before being served, and a dark chocolate with a fluffy whipped cream layer in the middle, ganache on top, and capped with a heap of strawberries. That one went first. I was so happy with how they turned out, and I won't tell which two came very near to being total disasters that were saved at the last minute due to some serendipitous ingredients in my fridge. THEN on Wednesday Troy's coworker Steve had a birthday. We were invited to a surprise dinner for him and as I was talking to his wife on the phone I heard these words come out of my mouth: "Can I bring a cake?" Huh. Well, luckily I still had everything I needed for one more cake, and I must say it was also a tasty treat. And now I don't need to eat cake again for a year. Except I did one more time on Friday night, but that's another story. At least I didn't make that one.

Thing Two: I made a great hat for Stomper.

Of course, I couldn't get a very good picture of it because he was being so silly, but I was very happy with the hat. (Another quick note: the giant snowball is now a full three-ball-high snowman, taller than Troy, and has a carrot nose and craisin eyes and mouth. I'm very impressed and enjoying my family's spontaneity, not that I'm taking part in it.) Anyway, here's the hat:



Knitting is becoming my happy place. That is, it's my happy place when it's not my frustrated, throw a huge tantrum, fling myself on the floor and cry place.

Thing Three: Bitty loves Shoes

Bitty got a box of dress-ups for Christmas that contains one pair of shoes. Big pink plastic shoes with a hideous flower on them, and she loves them. Well, now that she's starting to have play dates it's become abundantly clear that we need more than one pair. My sweet friend Elaine had an extra dollar-store pair at home and brought them over. They're almost worse than the first ones - pink fake snake skin. Gorgeous. Bitty was so thrilled that of course she wore them for the rest of the day, and even fell asleep with one cradled in her arms. I myself have never found hard plastic objects to be especially cuddly, but hey, who am I to deny a two year old of anything that will help her go to sleep happily?


Well, we now have a huge snowman in the back yard, which I will take a picture of later. The snow adventure did indeed end in tears for Bitty who's feet finally got cold through her slip-on-slippers, but other than that I think the evening was a pleasant one.

Help Me Out Here

Okay people. Help me out. Help me understand my child. Bitty is killing me. Yesterday, she had a nap on the way home from a long drive, which we know is the equivalent of having a completely nocturnal child. She went to bed after 11:00, which is better than it has been in the past. Does she sleep in this morning? Of course not, she's awake before 7:00, maybe even 6:30. So, I keep her up all day. She does snooze for literally 10 minutes on the way to a friend's house, but I quickly wake her up. 10 minutes, people. Does this count as a nap? To her, apparently it does, because tonight, at 10:00 when she had expressed her 1,845,973rd desire for me to do something for her, she was still in a perfectly energetic and chipper mood. You know, I adore my daughter, but 15 hours of her undivided company got to be a little much. Aren't kids supposed to need a lot of sleep? And now, I'm sitting here exhausted, basically typing with my eyes closed because I just need a few more moments of time without anyone asking me for anything.

Ah, motherhood. Goodnight.

March 3, Day of Heros

Okay, bad title, but it's quarter past 11:00 already and I'm not in my clearest frame of mind. I couldn't let another day go by without recording the fact that yesterday was Troy's birthday. I am only a day late in wishing him a bloggful happy birthday. Luckily we did celebrate in person on his actual birthday. We also found out that yesterday was the birthday of Alexander Graham Bell, which is significant because Troy and his coworker Steve, when phoning each other, always answer with a chipper, "Ahoy hoy!" This is the greeting that Mr. Bell thought we should use when answering the phone instead of the very boring hello. Of course, idiot that I am, did not know this, and thought that Troy and Steve really liked sailors or pirates or something. Ahoy matey! So I guess Troy and Mr. Bell are soulmates. Connected. You know.

What birthday would be complete without a birthday cake? Or breakfast in bed? We decided to combine the two. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to bring Troy breakfast in bed because he's always awake so much earlier than I, but thanks to the slowly recovering back injury, he was still there when I got up! And we figured that as long as we were pitching all propriety out the window by having cake for breakfast, we would also dispense with the whole separate plates thing. Here's a fork, kid! Have at it! My kids were in heaven. Cake for breakfast on mom and dad's bed without all that silly distracting tableware. Yes, I had to wash the sheets.



After a rather normal-ish day (okay I did bring Hires home for lunch - another birthday must) Troy and I went out for an early evening date. This is the second year we've done this and it's becoming a favorite. We drop the kids off at my in-laws' place, go off for a date, and then upon our return have presents, cake and ice cream together. For our date we decided we'd had enough eating for one day and chose a movie instead. Dan in Real Life. Good movie. Mostly I just liked sitting next to Troy in a quiet theater and enjoying a show together. The best present of the evening? A box of Lucky Charms from Carol (Troy's mom) - a tradition since his childhood. One box of sugar cereal on your birthday that you don't have to share with anyone. In keeping with Tradition, the box of cereal is now hidden in the attic or something.

I hope Troy had a nice birthday - I adore him completely. He's the best part of my life.

Jingle Bells and Cockleshells

Kids. Gotta love 'em. Of course, as I type this I can hear my two darlings getting ready to tear each others' eyes out, but hey. You GOTTA love them or else you'd run away, is what I'm trying to say. Anyway, I'm pondering my adoration for my children this morning because Bitty has named two of her toys. Their names are Jinglebells and Cockleshells. I find that to be completely adorable. It reminds me of my cute niece MG who, as a young tot, had two imaginary friends whom she dubbed (spelling is on the creative side, I'm sure) "Reebus" and "Cellerina." There was one more, too, I think, but I can't remember. Anyway, that was hilariously funny to us, and now I'm enjoying the new additions to our family as well. I believe that Jinglebells is the cat, this hideous plastic thing we got as a white elephant from the annual New Years Party at the Stringhams. Can't remember who it's from, but thanks a lot. Unfortunately, my daughter has glommed onto the thing and tries to sleep with it, even though it's hard plastic. Cockleshells is the very soft and sweet Pooh Bear. Bitty's not very interested in sleeping with the soft one. Just the hard plastic one.

And now, some footage of Bitty doing some singing. I think it's pretty cute.

"The Booger Hound Rides Again: A Cautionary Tale"

This is the title for the story my friend Becky and I have just decided I should write. It will be based on my daughter, who has, literally in the past four days, discovered that boogers are edible. "Edible" being a very loose term, of course. She is constantly on the fish and nibble and we're trying hard to curb her enthusiasm for her new hobby. "Bitty, don't eat that." Her reply? "Can I wipe it on your pants?" She has asked this question to both me and Troy this evening. And two nights ago she actually fell asleep with her fingers up her nose. Any suggestions on how to deal with this fun new development are welcome.

In other news, I must say, I can't believe we made it through today! There were so many strikes against us. Strike number one: It's Sunday. Any church goer with kids knows that Sunday isn't exactly a day of rest. Strike number two: Troy tweaked his back yesterday. "Tweaked" is a pretty specific term at our house. Every so often he leans over the wrong way or something simple like that and some little thingy in his back goes BOING and that's it. He is literally crooked for a few days and can't do much by lie there. It's boring and frustrating for him. So, no church for Troy today, sitting being the worst position he can be in. Strike number three: Bitty had a nap yesterday. I think I finally got her to sleep at about 12:30 or so...luckily she was very cute and happy, lying in bed in the dark singing songs to herself about "I like pink," but I didn't wake her up this morning. She slept in until 10:00, so guess what, we decided just to skip church. Strike number four: We decided just to skip church. Church is often our only out-of-house activity on Sundays in the winter. Of course church has other draws for me besides getting us out of the house, but when that doesn't happen you sure notice being inside all day. The kids held up pretty well, and we did take a very chilly walk before dinner, but with bouncing-off-the-walls kids and an out-of-commission husband (who did try to help me, more than he should have,) I was very grateful when the kids closed their sleepy little eyeballs at 9:30.

I would also like you to know that miracles do happen. This week I have seen several. One would be the laundry miracle. I have this little dream (okay, actually major obsession) each week as I do the laundry that I'll be able to do every stitch of laundry in the house and have it dry and folded before one single item is added to the laundry basket. It never happens. Ever. But still I try. It's just a fleeting hope. That is until my husband went down in the basement and cleaned out every inch of the lengthy duct leading from the dryer at the back of our house to the vent at the front of our house. Wow. Suddenly the dryer dries things. I could hardly keep up. Another miracle we enjoyed was seeing the sunshine. The weather was so gorgeous this week - it was actually warm and nice out. No coats! Even the occasional short sleeves. I know it's just Utah teasing me - we did get a rainy/slushy storm yesterday, and there is certainly more to come, but ah....I'm excited. Miracle three, my two year old has play dates. Her little friend J is so darling and the two of them actually play together. I just love this shot of the two of them in their dress ups, (take note of Bitty's shoes, especially,) just happily in their own little world. Maybe that's how she learned about the boogers...

Time: Flying By

Wow. I didn't realize that I hadn't blogged in a while. I guess I keep doing all my blogging mentally. It happens after a while, once you get going on your blog, everywhere you go you start speaking to yourself in "blogesse." I walk around, thinking of titles, witty remarks and the like, and suddenly I realize I haven't actually made it to the computer in a while. My mental blog has lots of entries but I guess I'd better get a few of them down on the actual blog.

Hmmm. Where to begin? These days have sort of been the best of times, the worst of times. Not the very worst, of course, but Bitty sure is giving us a run for our money. I have to remind myself that she was pretty ill for almost three weeks and she's just coming out of it. Part of it is also the fact that Troy and I decided that we had had enough of the binkis. We didn't take them away while she was sick, but we have been wanting to pitch them for a while. With Stomper it was so easy. "Here, kid. I'll give you this dinosaur if you give me those binkis." Done deal, no sweat. But Bitty doesn't have one single passion like the Stomper/Dinosaur love affair. I thought long and hard about it, and realized that Bitty likes to get her hands on things. Dress ups. Musical instruments. Stuff like that. So I bought this really cool doctor kit. I tried to approach the subject with her over the past couple of weeks, like telling her the story of how Stomper got his dinosaur. "Hey, do you see that cool brachiosaurus? Wanna know how your brother got that?" It didn't take her long to guess where we were headed so whenever I brought up the subject she'd say, quickly and firmly, "PweeDon't!"

"PweeDon't" is her version of "Please Don't." I, silly mother that I am, continue to insist that my children at least make an attempt at having manners. Bitty does a good job. So does Stomper, of course, but Bitty has really picked up on the please thing. If she wants you to stop something, such as me singing (don't know why she hates that so much...) she'll let fly with a very quick, "PweeDon't!" She's very firm about it because I've finally taught her to say that instead of instantly screaming when she doesn't like something. Of course now Troy and I do rapid-fire "pweedon't"s at each other all the time. It's a favorite.

ANYWAY, the binkis. I didn't think the trade was going to take, but lo and behold, it did. Sunday after church I made the proposal and she very happily chucked all her binks into the garbage can outside. We bid goodbye, and I spent the rest of my Sunday getting checked by my new and very young physician. Predictably, she asked for them many times, but all you have to do is ask her where the binkis are, and she grin and shout, "In the GARBAGE CAN!" She's very proud of herself, and is even sleeping pretty well. Now all we have to do is get her potty trained....(groan!)



Bye Bye, Binkis, Hello, Dr. Bitty!




















My favorite Stomper blog-worthy event this month was receiving a letter from him. He sent it from school. It made me happy because he was practicing his writing, which he doesn't show much interest in. It's the cutest thing:








In other news, we've had many opportunities this month to spend time with dear friends. We've had more than one family we know chose to come to town in February as opposed to Christmas time. I've enjoyed some girls' nights and we've gotten together with the Durhams and Gardners and all the wonderful people that are a part of that awesome group of friends. As we've gotten together I keep thinking about my greatest prayer and wish for my own children: that they'll make and keep the valuable kind of friends that I have. I think the quality of people in my life are perhaps one of my greatest blessings outside of my husband and children.

I guess this entry is getting obnoxiously lengthy, so I must end. However, I cannot do so without relating to you the miracle of the telephone. I have this cell phone that I love. It's purple, it's a motorola flip phone...what's not to love? Well, I took Bitty with me on a series of errands, including a trip to Costco. After a successful trip (meaning I got away without spending our entire life savings) I was driving along 300 West and saw a car wash. Believe me, we needed to stop there. I thought I'd grab the phone and call Troy to see if the Jeep's rack can go through a car wash. (It can't, by the way, though luckily I did not find that out through experience.) Anyway, I could not find the phone anywhere. After a couple minutes of the very safe steering/searching driving combo, I finally thought I'd better pull over to search in earnest. When I got out of the car to walk around to the other side and look under the seats and stuff I finally found the phone. On the hood of the car. My heart stopped. It was not just out on the open hood, it was kind of tucked in the crevice between the edge of the hood and the windshield wipers. I think what must have happened was that it fell out of my purse or something right by the car in the Costco parking lot and someone found it and placed it on my hood, thinking that the driver of the car(me)might actually see it. Well, thankfully my phone survived the trip down the road on the exterior of my car. Perhaps it even enjoyed the ride. But I felt sort of freaked out for the rest of the day. This is not a phone I could afford to replace. I only got it because I had earned a discount with my provider. I don't think they let you do that twice. Anyway, yay, my phone was miraculously saved. Of course I misplaced it again later in the evening whereupon I had to confess that I have a serious phone problem. Luckily it was just left at home while I went out instead of being lost again - I don't think I deserve more than one phone miracle a day.

1000 Words

Bitty has been sick all week, and I think this picture, forwarded to me from my sister, about says it all. My Sicky Bitty Kitty! Bitty keeps acting like she's about to get better and then the next day will blossom into new heights of feverish glory. Fever, ear aches, coughing, boogers, sneezing....we have it all going on. Even a barf or two. All week I've had tons of plans and I kept lying awake in bed at night trying to figure out how I was going to make it all work, and then I'd have to just let it all go. It has been sick week. Now that Dr. George has given us a little amoxicillin for the ears, I'm hoping we're on the road to recovery. Not only will it be nice to have a cheerful toddler back in the house, but I could use a night of sleep. Last night Bitty woke up and got really restless just as I was going to bed, and finally at 3:30 or something I got up with her. We fell asleep together on the couch around 5:00, and then Stomper got up before 7:00. Yeah, not quite enough snoozes for the parents this week. And on that note, I'm off to bed.

The Tea Party

Despite our happy afternoon at the zoo yesterday, both Stomper and Bitty have been feeling a bit under the weather lately. The zoo really helped, I think, but everyone was pretty cranky today. Cranky and touchy. I know that something that really helps the kids is when they get some special attention from me. No *&!@, Sherlock, I know. I just forget sometimes when I'm getting through a day with my little to do list and I'm racing around accomplishing things. Really important things like making additional lists (and dividing them into sub-categories) (I'm mostly kidding) and cleaning the kitchen for the 11th time that day. Then suddenly both kids are weeping at the slightest provocation, and provoking each other, thus continuing the weeping/provoking cycle. They both have colds, they both seem to delight in vexing one another, and Stomper had a rare bout of anxiety as I tried to drop him off at school today. I decided we needed a little something special this afternoon. I know, the zoo was special yesterday, but something a little quieter and personal. So, we went out to tea! I had been thinking of having a tea party at home, but I also thought about the toys already evenly sprinkled across the living room floor and the dishes already piled up in the sink, and I knew that it would be challenging for me to focus on the kids and the kids alone instead of how messy the house was. Then I remembered this charming little tea house down town called the Beehive Tea Room - they have, for like $2.50 or something, a "child's tea party." The child gets a silver tray, all to themselves, with a silver urn full of hot chocolate simply heaped with whipped cream, a little creamer with milk and three wafer cookies. Plus a small (and sturdy!) tea cup and saucer. Talk about heaven for little kids. I enjoyed a delicious cup of tangerine ginger herbal tea - man, that was yum. So yum that both the kids liked my tea better than their hot chocolate. It was really fun. Of course, the kids did insist on fiddling with everything in sight, from the beaded lampshade to the decorative books on the shelf behind our heads, and they did decide to play a game of pretend in which their hot chocolate urns played the main characters, using their lids for mouths. It made me a little tense - a spill was inevitable of course - but really, doesn't that just add to the charm?

Sunshine!

I really can't complain about the weather this winter. It's been great. We've had storm after storm after storm, which gives us the water we need, plus it keeps the valley free from the nasty depressing stinky inversion. So I'm grateful. But I won't say I wasn't thrilled to have two days of sunshine this week. Warm - up towards the fifty degree mark, and wonderfully sunny. Yesterday as soon as I picked up Stomper from school we headed up to the zoo. It's been quite a while since our last visit and it seemed like the perfect time. Boy did the kids love and need it. Upon arriving at the zoo they both took off at a full sprint. Of course, they both fell on their faces within the first few yards and within seconds of each other, so I guess their little limbs were a bit rusty on the running around thing. After a brief recovery, we set forth once more. It was such a great day - there were animals out and about and really active. We especially enjoyed the gorillas and orangutans, who were frolicking. The bears, red panda and cougars were all up and about as well. My favorite may have been the leopard, who's enclosure borders the wolfs. That leopard is constantly being tortured - you can tell he can see and smell the wolves, and that he wants very much to eat them. He's always pacing the fence along that side and yesterday he was actually perched up in a tree in a rather menacing manner. The wolves haven't seemed to notice that they've attracted the attention of a fierce carnivore.




I couldn't help but post a pix of Stomper's favorite: the reticulated python. He loves the thing, and makes mention of it often. He's also under the impression that Bindy Irwin, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, is the owner of a reticulated python, and is anxious to make her aquaintence. He has even written her a letter (rather, he dictated it to me) and I am in search of a fan mail address to which I can send the letter. Anyway, I think he's got a thing for both Bindy and the snake.



All in all it was a really refreshing afternoon out in the cool air and sunshine. My children even commented about how hot it was outside. The day continued in a happy vein as we returned home and I made dinner and they actually ate it. Miracles do happen.

Funny Kids

Oh, these kids of mine. Does any body here know how to be a parent? I'm pretty sure I don't. I'm working on it, believe me, but there have been some days this week when I was out of ideas. My two darlings appear to hate each others' guts. I'm not kidding. About three days this week they have been like a terrier and a weasel every second they've been together. Even with one of them away at school or at play dates - no amount of time apart seems to be enough of a break. And then suddenly they'll just be sweet and play together. Of course, in this picture, they had to be asleep to be nice to each other:



This morning Stomper decided that he needed a bath. The rest of us were sitting at the table eating breakfast together and we heard him singing in the tub. I guess he liked the way his voice sounded with his ears under the water. I need you to know that I am swallowing some pride here in revealing the disgusting-ness of our bathroom...we're going to get to it, okay? Anyway, Stomper was hilarious. He went on and on and on - I just caught a little clip of him; I didn't want him to catch me filming him. Troy and I just sat at the table and laughed into our hands.

Doh! A Deer!

We had a visitor yesterday. We've had so much snow lately, the local wildlife doesn't quite know what do. As the snow started falling once again yesterday morning (as it is starting to do at this very moment) Troy looked up from the computer out the back window and spotted a deer in the back yard! We thought it was kind of cool and had a good time watching him/her walk around. It looked like a yearling or maybe a doe. Well, it was cool for a while, but as the day wore on and the deer did not go away, it got to be a bit of a pain. Dear Alex the puppy was not allowed to go outside, due to his carnivorous nature, and the longer we wouldn't let him out the more he wanted to go out. Troy did take him for a couple of potty breaks in the front yard on a leash, with which Alex was non-plussed. What's the fun of being put on a leash if you're not going to leave the front yard? I don't think Alex ever figured out what was back there because if he had , I can only assume he would have screamed like a wookie until he was hoarse. Yes, he really can scream like a wookie. He's not a barker, but he can make quite a ruckus when needed. The trouble with deer is that if they get freaked out they lose all ability to think clearly and start bashing their heads into fences trying to get away. So we couldn't do much but wait.

Even better was the fact that last night we held an enrichment meeting at my house, so our house was packed with 8 extra adults and a few extra children as well, and I couldn't just put the nosey nervous doggie outside. He hung out under everyones' legs, which is his refuge in times of anxiety. That was fun. Finally in the late late evening Troy put on his gaters and stealthily snuck into our neighbor's yard and approached the deer to shoo it away. It took a couple of tries, but he finally got it frantically dashing in the right direction and it headed out, along our street and up south temple. Where it headed after that, who knows. Maybe it will visit the governor.

Better!

Before:



After:



A major problem in our house is meeting the standard of "A place for everything and everything in its place." Here's my take-half-the-day, ignore-the-kids, gets-way-messier-before-it-gets-cleaner project for today. And I feel happy. Now, as soon as the kids go to bed I can pull out my scrapbooking stuff and make it a huge big mess all over again!